'Zimbabwe drew against Nigeria' - Rwanda coach suggests Bafana Bafana had no idea about his team

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Rwanda's German coach Torsten Spittler has claimed that South Africa had no idea about the strengths and weaknesses of his team before Tuesday's clash at the Stade Huye, Butare.

Unheralded at international level and ranked 140th in the world, the Wasps caused a sensation by beating Bafana Bafana 2-0 courtesy of goals from Innocent Nshuti and Gilbert Mugisha to throw Group C of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers wide open.

Just like his Nigerian counterpart Jose Peseiro, South Africa manager Hugo Broos complained that they experienced travel difficulties before the encounter and also noted the playing surface was not up to standard.

Spittler suggested that South Africa thought it would be a stroll in the park, given that Rwanda could only manage a draw in their group opener against Zimbabwe.

The Warriors almost caused an upset on matchday two but Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho got the Super Eagles out of trouble by coming off the bench to score an equalizer. 

"I know we haven't played against South Africa before and they have seen the results of the matches last week," Spittler told reporters. 

"It means we drew against Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe drew against Nigeria so they didn't really know about us - how strong we are or how weak we are. 

"The approach was like that to go out from the first second and give them no space to play tiki-taka."

In the next round of fixtures in Group C of the World Cup qualifiers, Nigeria face South Africa in a mouth-watering clash, Zimbabwe battle Lesotho while Benin are at home to Rwanda.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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